Nelumbo

Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy flowers resembling water lilies, commonly known as lotus. The American lotus is found in North America and the Caribbean. I was searching the internet for an Asian flower to paint on some Asian themed background and came up with the lotus. Nelumbo will be donated as a Priority Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. The background fabric had too wide a repeat, so I sliced it up and re-assembled pieces on a sheet of Lutradur. Then, on a whim, I glued the pieces together with a luminescent glue that was laying on top of my shelving unit. I stitched the flower first, then painted it and finished it off with some Pearl Ex for some color variation. The binding is painted background fabric.

Sister Gifts

I have two sisters and one sister-in-law who are very dear to me. We exchange gifts every Christmas that we call Sister Gifts - the rules are simple: it has to be hand made. We've shared lovely gifts over the years and every time I start to think we've covered all the bases (there are no more hand made things to give) we all come up with really neat stuff. This year I gave two sister gifts because when Dad died last December I never got mine finished. That particular project remains unfinished. I made two new things.

The birds are a note or picture holder. The bags were silk blanks from Dharma that I painted and then beaded. I'll take pictures of the gifts I received in the next day or so and post them.

Happy New Year!

I must say I got out at the best time of the day. When I walked over to the Mather to put in an hour of volunteering the sun was out, the sky was blue with smallish white fluffy clouds in it. I wanted to somehow gather up all the residents on my floor and take them outside to see it, but of course, that wasn't possible. At any rate, it was a lovely start to my day and now it's blowing bits of sleety snow everywhere. I'm now happily snuggled in. I did add some beads to my Wild Cat piece and I think it really improved it. It was too dark and almost boring, I think - all that olive green and black! I truly believe in serendipity as I had just bought these flat yellow beads for flower centers and they were laying out on my worktable when I was re-thinking Wild Cat. They are the perfect addition!

The King Speaks

Finished this one yesterday. It feels SO GOOD to be quilting again! This one came entirely out of the donations of Michael McNamara and Interior Effects. The lion and the flowers are upholstery fabric, the background silk curtain fabric.

There's a project afoot . . .

I had to look up afoot. Make sure it was a real word - and it is: astir, in progress. Online dictionaries are really cool anyway - they usually have all sorts of info just there for the looking. The word of the day is solatium.

Anyway, is there a project afoot, or did my favorite bead store just have a 25% off sale? The answer is "yes" and "yes". I've discovered I enjoy beading, now that I found a needle threader that will thread those teeny tiny hole beading needles. It's called the Escort II and it has the name written in Japanese figures below that, probably because it's made by Kawaguchi Co. in Japan.

And beads are pretty cheap! You can build up quite a stash pretty inexpensively and they're really pretty to look at! And you can watch TV without feeling guilty (I never was any good at knitting or even crochet). Right after I found the needle threader that works, I started beading the quilt below and now I can't stop! I think I'll finish the parrot's wing and then stop.

By the way solatium means compensation for inconvenience, loss or injury.

Finally . . .

I'm a pretty crummy blogger. I never think to blog about cool things that happen. Here's one: The other day I went with a friend to an Interior Design shop that is downsizing and the owner offered to donate material to me since I make quilts for the AAQI. Talk about being a kid in a candy store! I found so many wonderful pieces my head was spinning. Here's a shot of about a quarter of my haul.

This is the quilt I made today - the tiger was a piece of upholstery fabric and the twill was part of the goodies I got too.

This is an exciting time of year!

This week, the AAQI booth will open at Quilt Festival in Houston with over 1,500 Priority Quilts. If you're going to Houston, look in Row T near the front. I am not going to be there - I'm holding down the fort chained to my computer for the duration.

AND the monthly auction that started today has some very special quilts in it. Ricky, Alex, Holly, Becky, Caryl, Hollis - such fun dropping names! You gotta go take a look!